REU Summer Internship Program

Each summer, the MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy and its research groups offer 10-week internships for up to 12 undergraduate students. The program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Michigan State University (MSU).

Over the course of these ten weeks, the undergraduate students will work one-on-one with MSU faculty members in one of these research areas:

Accelerator Physics

Astrophysics

Biophysics

Computational Physics

Condensed Matter Physics

Low Temperature Physics

Nanoscience

Nuclear Physics

Particle Physics

Physics Education

Psychoacoustics

Theoretical Physics

Every attempt will be made to pair up each student with the professor and project of his/her choice.

Undergraduate students, preferably sophomores or juniors, who have completed introductory physics courses and have completed or are taking an advanced physics course, are encouraged to apply. The REU program is only available to U.S. citizens.

Participants & staff, 2016 REU Program

The program includes a weekly series of professional and career development workshops and organized social activities and excursions; these provide an informal atmosphere where students can get to know each other and a range of Physics-Astronomy faculty and staff. At the end of the program, students will present their research results as a poster and also submit a "practice" NSF Graduate Fellowship application. To maximize interactions between students, all students are housed in the same building.

Dates for the 2017 program will be May 30th through August 4th. Alternative dates can be arranged for students whose classes extend until the middle of June.

Students will receive a stipend of $5000 plus full room and board. In addition, travel expenses will partially reimbursed to a maximum of $400.

The application deadline for the 2017 program will be February 17, 2017. The REU program organizers will begin to review applications earlier in February. The Physics REU sites' directors will utilize a common deadline of March 3, 2017 for students to accept or decline first round offers at domestic (non-international) sites. Sites may tender offers to students at any time before this, but students will not be required to decide before this common date. Because of necessary organizational lead time, international REU sites may require earlier acceptance dates.

Note: the 2017 program's deadline has now passed, so applications will no longer be accepted.

Applications are available here along with detailed instructions for the application procedure.